Harbortech Mobility: Delivering Holistic Solutions Around WLAN and Mobility

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Trevor Bigelow, Founding Partner, Principal & VP Strategic Accounts and Brian Ray, Founding Partner, Principal & VP Professional Services

Founded in 2010, HarborTech Mobility supports the IT segments of wireless LAN and network mobility. From their past experiences with typical solutions integrators, the founders realized there was an addressable market for technical engineering services to help supportcompanies looking to createmobile-first network infrastructures. Typical integrators were more focused on selling hardware and not necessarily the investment in engineering expertise to technically support and integrate the solutions they were providing. To this end, HarborTech created an engineering-focused practice specializing in one area of IT infrastructure—WLAN and mobility. The company invests heavily in its engineers to provide the same, if not better, support customers get from manufacturers like Cisco, HPE/Aruba, Extreme, and Juniper Networks.

Companies today are looking for turn-key WLAN networks to support every element of their IT infrastructure—from mobile devices, to printers and laptops, critical servers, storage devices, and dozens of applications. Each element processes and stores corporate data and mission critical information. HarborTech has developed a deployment strategy to make these networks secure, easily manageable, controlled, and supported by their engineering and 24x7 support teams. The goal here is to make WLAN networking easy so that customers can focus on what they do best, running their business. Additionally, the company also helps leverage data analytics forasset tracking, customer experience management, dwell times, and productivity analysis. Following is the conversation that CIO Applications had with two of HarborTech’s founding partners, Trevor Bigelow, VP of Strategic Accounts, and Brian Ray, VP Professional Services, and what the company delivers around wireless LAN and network mobility.

Which are the key professional and managed services that HarborTech offers to its clients?

On the professional services side, HarborTech Mobility offers complete end to end services to support our customer’s network deployments.Our engineering and project management team will plan, design, implement and provide the on-going support services for mission critical business operations.In addition to full project deployments, we provide a variety of professional, managed, and outsourcing services that can be implemented at any point in the network’s life cycle.

Today’s wireless and wired networks continue to grow even more complex.Our Professional Services team utilizes the latest site survey tools and spectrum analysis technologies to ensure the most robust and complete network designs.Employing some of the industry’s top engineers and taking a consultative approach to address our clients’ business challenges, our network design documentation provides the information necessary to implement accurate and economically efficient solutions that match our client’s business objectives.

We have the experience and resources needed to design secure wireless and wired networks in a mobile-first world

At HarborTech Mobility, we have the experience and resources needed to design secure wireless and wired networks in a mobile-first world. On the managed services end of business, HarborTech Mobility offers customers a variety of managed services through its 24/7 Network Operations Center (NOC).We leverage industry best practices and deep technical in-house knowledge to help dramatically reduce IT outages, improve mean time to resolution (MTR) and maximize the value of IT investments.

We also partner with leading product vendors and solution partners such as Cisco, HPE/Aruba, Extreme Networks, Juniper, Checkpoint, AWS and many more to deliver the professional and managed services.

Please elaborate on a case study to highlight the benefits brought to one of HarborTech’s clients.

HarborTech Mobility deploys and manages a large international wireless access program to assist developing nations and underserved communities throughout the world. As part of the Last Mile Connectivity initiative, HarborTech, with a strategic technology partner, engages with local enterprise, NGO’s, and governmental agencies to maintain Wi-Fi networks, and provides equitable internet access to communities that may otherwise be overlooked. Leveraging HarborTech’s Morocco based office and engineering team, we are able to quickly and cost effectively deploy and support projects on a global scale in multiple languages and time-zones. Operating in often challenging rural environments, we are able to use new technologies such as TV White Space to bring connectivity to areas where traditional fibre and point-to-point solutions are not feasible.

What steers HarborTech ahead of its competitors?

We are not a typical solutions integrator, we specialize in one area of expertise: WLAN and mobility. Our engineers, their certifications, and our ability to execute both domestically and on a global scale steers us ahead of the competition. It’s traditionally very difficult to maintain talent.Wireless consultant engineers possess a unique skillset and acquiring and keeping senior level talent in Seattle’s competitive tech marketplace is something we continuously focus on and invest heavily in. Further, we have high-end engineering certifications and follow best practices for low-voltage cabling and deployment.

Our engineers have the expertise in providing not only the network infrastructure but also helping our customers consume the data it provides to make informed business decisions and kick start initiatives such as customer tracking in retail, patients in healthcare, business operations in manufacturing, and real-time business analytics. We also deliver services in the network access control and security solutions space.

Where does HarborTech see customer traction in and why?

We cover all market segments as WLAN and mobility transcends vertical markets - any customers looking to enable business operations through mobility solutions need our expertise. With that said, we are seeing considerable growth in Retail, Healthcare, Manufacturing/Distribution, Gaming/ Hospitality, Ports, Transportation & Logistics, and Education.

What lies ahead for HarborTech?

We are planning our expansion in other markets outside the West Coast. We will also continue to develop solutions offerings within our managed services practice with a focus on cloud-managed security solutions, management and visibility platforms, enabling end-user customer experience and data analytics. Partnerships with 5G providers and development of private LTE networks to compliment WLAN offerings is also in the cards for us. We will also be launching HarborTech OEM, which is an end to end managed services utilizing HTMI branded solution sets. The program targets OPEX sales with a focus on managed services and on-going support models for our customers.